Hacktoberfest is an annual month-long celebration of open source software. It's a global initiative that encourages developers of all levels to contribute to open source projects. By completing four pull requests to any participating project during October, you can earn a limited-edition Hacktoberfest T-shirt (subject to availability) and other rewards.
The History of Hacktoberfest
Hacktoberfest started out in 2014 as a small hackathon organized by DigitalOcean—the first year had 676 participants who each completed 50 commits to various open source projects. At the time of the inaugural Hacktoberfest, DigitalOcean was a relatively new cloud provider focused on providing developers with simple and performant virtual machines so they could build without the complexity or costs of hyperscalers. Hacktoberfest was, and is still today, aligned strongly with DigitalOcean’s mission of enabling developers to spend more time creating software that changes the world.
Over the last decade, Hacktoberfest has expanded to become a much larger virtual event, with over 98,000 people contributing to the effort in 2023. It has evolved in other ways as well, including supporting projects on GitLab as well as GitHub, the addition of checks to increase the quality of pull/merge requests, and allowing projects to opt-in to the program each year to ensure it doesn’t become a burden for open source maintainers.
What is Open Source?
Open source software is software whose source code is made available for modification and distribution. This means that anyone can view, change, and improve the software. Open source projects are often developed collaboratively by communities of developers from around the world.
Why support open source?
At its core, Hacktoberfest is a celebration of open source, the projects that power much of today’s most popular websites and applications. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the internet as we know it would look very different without open source projects, and these projects are often maintained and updated by developers on their own time, with little to no budget. Open source is the backbone of tech today, and developers who maintain and contribute to these projects are the backbone of open source.
How to Participate in Hacktoberfest :
- Sign up: Visit the official Hacktoberfest website and register using your GitHub account.
- Find a project: Browse through the list of participating projects on the Hacktoberfest website or explore popular platforms like GitHub and GitLab. Look for projects that align with your interests and skill level.
- Contribute: Identify issues or tasks that you can work on. Fork the project's repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request.
- Repeat: Complete four pull requests to any participating project during the month of October to earn your rewards.
Rewards for Participating
Participants in Hacktoberfest 2024 get a customizable digital badge from Holopin. Read More : https://hacktoberfest.com/about/#rewards
Why is Hacktoberfest Not Giving Away T-shirts Anymore?

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Hacktoberfest in recent years, the demand for T-shirts has exceeded the supply. To ensure that the event remains sustainable and accessible to everyone, Hacktoberfest has decided to focus on other rewards and incentives. While the T-shirt may be a popular perk, the true value of Hacktoberfest lies in the opportunity to contribute to open source and learn new skills.
Conclusion
Hacktoberfest is a fantastic opportunity for developers of all levels to get involved in open source and make a difference. By participating in this annual event, you can contribute to the development of important software projects, learn new skills, and connect with other developers. Even though the T-shirt may not be available this year, the rewards and benefits of participating in Hacktoberfest are still significant.
Source :
- Website : https://hacktoberfest.com
- Rewards : https://hacktoberfest.com/about/#rewards